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04 Mar 2015 10:58:08am

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One of the problems with descriptions of "sex differences" is that it is rarely made clear that these are differences in the averages of groups. I find it helpful to think about differences in height because this is easy to visualise. There are clear and consistent sex differences in height. But there are many women who are taller than the average man, and many men who are shorter than the average woman. My guess is that the average differences in height are probably greater than the average differences in many other characteristics where "significant" sex differences have been found. Individual differences are usually much greater - and of more importance - than differences in the averages of the two sexes.Then too often the idea of "average" gets re-interpreted to "normal".Another issue I have with many comparison experiments using groups of boys and girls is that I suspect they rarely take into account one very well established sex difference - rate of development. Girls develop faster than boys, on the average, so comparisons of children of the same age would be expected to show differences even if the two sexes end up indistinguishable on a particular characteristic. I wonder whether boy babies and girls babies' brains are equally developed at birth, or might those baby boys be more interested in faces in a couple of day's time?

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